Monday, September 30, 2019

"Snow Peak" - Scramble


Plan A for September 23 was to go rock climbing, trad climbing; alpine if the weather allowed us back to an unfinished route or a valley crag. Well my buddy went sport climbing on Sunday the 22nd and took a lead fall and injured his hand and wrist. Glad he wasn’t seriously hurt but he couldn’t climb today. Sigh. We went for a hike, poor guy couldn’t even hold a pole, so feet only. 


View to 'Snow Peak' from the flats below the Robertson Glacier.

View up to the Robertson Glacier.
Looks blustery.

"Burstall Slabs" climbing crag. 
I will climb there one day... been thinking of trying that for decades...

View to Mt. Birdwood

View back to Mt. Smuts as we gain elevation enroute to Burstall Pass.


We settled on “Snow Peak” beside Burstall Pass. Good hike in blustery weather, lots of high winds and a wee bit of snow. Lots of snow on Mt. Sir Douglas. Some nice larches. A casual 6 hours car to car. A relaxing day. Hopefully more outdoor rock before ice climbing.

LK enjoying the winds, Mt. Sir Douglas hiding in clouds in the background.

More views back to Sir Dougie.

Summit cairn and brightly coloured summit register container.

Our summit entry.

Mt. Sir Douglas clearing a bit. 

Mt. Birdwood

View back towards road.

Mt. Smuts.


Thursday, September 5, 2019

Godzilla - 5.9, 120m (4 pitches)

Spent a chilly Monday afternoon (August 26) on a fun short multi pitch sport route, "Godzilla". Quote from Gripped website, where Brandon Pullan is the editor.

"Godzilla is a new 5.9 four-pitch all-bolted route on Kanga Crag above Upper Grassi Lakes parking area in Canmore. There are now three fun multi-pitch routes on the small wall above the pond.


The first ascent was in June 2018 by Dave Smart and Brandon Pullan with later route cleaning help from Re Cairney, James Walter, John Price and Cory Rogans.
Like all Rockies’ routes, there will be loose and flaky rocks for a few seasons and don’t throw any big boulders off because they might reach the road below. If you’re not comfortable climbing on loose rock then stick to older, better travelled multi-pitch routes."
Brandon has set quite a few new multi pitch in the past 5 to 10 years. On this wall, Kanga Crag, Brandon set "Sharknado" (5.9, 100m, 4 pitches) and "Hot Fuzz" (5.8, 80m, 2 pitches). Laurie and I have climbed all three of these routes, compared to Sharknado, the 5.9 pitches on Godzilla are more difficult. Overall a fun route with super easy access and very close to Canmore. We had a bit of trouble finding the base of route, but eventually got on track.  I lead the first pitch, very fun and straightforward 5.7.
View up pitch one, Good fun.

View down pitch one from station.

Laurie had fun on the crux, the 5.9 crux is solid for the grade, probably many would say more than 5.9, but the crux is short and well protected.


View up start of pitch two.
Laurie has rounded the corner, the crux is actually out of sight.

I did the third pitch, fun 5.8. Laurie did the last 5.9 pitch, which had one or two 5.9 moves, with the rest being more like 5.7. we did the four rappels to get off the route. Great day out. 
View up start of pitch three.

View to last pitch.

Crux moves of pitch 4.

Rapping off pitch 4 on the way down.